What do ISIS—or IS and Daish, as they are variously referred to—and the ancient Assyrians have in common? And what warnings do they herald for our contemporary world? (Please note, what follows contains some confronting ancient texts and inscriptions from the world of the ancient Assyrians.)
The ancient Assyrian homeland in Mesopotamia extended northwest from the mouth of the Little Zab river, a tributary of the Tigris, for only about 130 kilometres (80 miles) along the Tigris itself. The country was not large, hemmed in between the desert beyond the river to the west and mountains on its east, rising just beyond a narrow strip of arable land between them and the river that was much less fertile than in southern Mesopotamia. Naturally, then, Assyria’s most notable cities— Asshur; Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta; Calah; Nineveh and Dur-Sharrukin—were all located along the Tigris.
The scarcity of farming land possibly helped give rise to the national character of the Assyrians, who were daring adventurers, brave warriors, talented organizers and an enterprising commercial people. While not a scientific or literary people when compared to their southern Babylonian kinsmen, they were artistically talented, as revealed by their masterly sculptures in stone.
Like the Babylonians and Aramaeans, the Assyrians were a Semitic people, speaking a language closely related to that of the Babylonians. They used a modified Babylonian cuneiform script.
Being Semites, the Assyrian religion had many gods in common with other Semitic nations, especially the Babylonians. They too worshiped the great Babylonian deities such as Shamash, the sun god; Sin, the moon god; Ea, the god of waters; and Ishtar, goddess of fertility. However, their principal god was Ashur, who was not part of the Babylonian pantheon. He was depicted as a winged sun that protected and guided the king, who was his principal servant. Ashur was also symbolized by a tree that represented fertility. But above all, Ashur was a god of war, and as such, war was intrinsic to the Assyrian national religion. Every Assyrian military campaign was thought to be undertaken in response to the direct orders of Ashur. Thus participation in warfare was considered an act of worship of a kind. Such facts help us understand why the Assyrians were a formidable fighting machine and why the cult of Ashur vanished when the Assyrian Empire was destroyed.
Assyrian Cruelty and Ruthlessness
The Assyrian Empire was the greatest of the Mesopotamian empires. The king, who represented the state, was naturally the pinnacle of the hierarchy, with all public acts recorded as his achievements. His two primary tasks as an Assyrian king were to wage war and erect public buildings. Both were seen as religious duties to the Assyrian gods.
Historians have divided the Assyrian Empire into three periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Empire, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Most of what follows will concern itself with the greatest period of the Assyrian Empire—that of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (933–612 BC)—the era that primarily gave the Assyrian Empire its reputation for extreme ruthlessness and cruelty. Assyrian history continues past that point, and there are still Assyrians in Iran, Iraq and other countries today. Paradoxically, they are among the most friendly and hospitable people one can meet.
Assyrian national history, as preserved for us in its cuneiform inscriptions and images on walls and floors of palaces and temples, and on clay and alabaster tablets, prisms and cylinders, consists mainly of military campaigns and battles. It is perhaps the most gory and bloodthirsty of history known. And from its beginning, Assyria was a strong military power bent on conquest. Any country or people group that opposed their rule was punished with the destruction of their cities and the devastation of their fields a
Assyrian inscriptions and pictorial reliefs testify to the Assyrian treatment of those they conquered, their armies and rulers. For example, Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) calls himself “the trampler of all enemies . . . . who defeated all his enemies [and] hung the corpses of his enemies on posts” (Albert Kirk Grayson, “Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, Part 2,” from Tiglath-pileser I to Ashur-nasir-apli II, p. 165).
Accounts like this not only described what actually happened but were no doubt also designed to threaten others who might think of resisting. The following description of another conquest reveals why they could well be called the terrorists of the ancient world:
“In strife and conflict I besieged [and] conquered the city. I felled 3000 of their fighting men with the sword . . . . I captured many troops alive: I cut off some of their arms [and] hands; I cut off others their noses, ears [and] extremities. I gouged out the eyes of many troops. I made one pile of the living [and] one of heads. I hung their heads on trees around the city.” (Grayson, p. 126)
Such Assyrian records, which were only discovered in the past 150 years, also testify to the historical accuracy of ancient Jewish biblical records, as in the writings of the prophet Nahum, who, writing about the inhabitants of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, in 640 BC, records, “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! . . . who has not felt your endless cruelty?” (Nahum 3:1, 19).
The Assyrians and Ancient Israel
It was in this time of barbaric cruelty that the Assyrians first went into battle against Israel. In light of the historicity of such cruelty, one begins to understand the actions taken by some of Israel’s kings and prophets. The first of the Assyrian kings to come in contact with the Israelites was Shalmaneser III (859–824 BC). During his reign, Shalmaneser campaigned in practically every country surrounding his homeland. He records that he fought an alliance of Syrian kings in 853 BC at the battle of Qarqar, in which King Ahab of Israel committed a force of 2000 chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers to the Syrian coalition.
Twelve years later, on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, he recorded that King Jehu of Israel gave him tribute. In one of the panels of the Obelisk, Jehu is seen kneeling before Shalmaneser III.
For the next 80 years, several weak rulers led Assyria and the empire lost much of its hold on subjugated nations. However, during this time Adadnirari III (811–783 BC) conquered Damascus from the Syrian king, Hazael, who is mentioned numerous times in biblical records (see 1 Kings 19:15; 2 Kings 10:32). At the same time Adad-nirari III conquered Damascus. He mentions on the Tel El Rimah stele that he received tribute from King Joash of Israel, whose capital was at Samaria. The inscription reads:
Adad-nirari . . . king of Assyria . . . . I gathered my chariots and army and gave them orders to march to the land of Hatti. In just one year, I subdued the entire county of the Amurru as well as Hatti. I imposed upon them tax and tribute forever. I received the tribute of 2000 talents of silver, 1000 talents of copper, 2000 talents of iron and 3000 garments with multi-coloured trim from Mari of the land of Damascus. I also received the tribute of Joash, the Samarian, as well as the rulers of Tyre and of Sidon. (Tell el Rimah stele)
Biblical chronology places the story of Jonah the prophet between (793–753 BC). Given the accounts by the Assyrians of their ruthless cruelty, one can understand Jonah’s reluctance and refusal to go there (see Jonah 1–4). It was an exceedingly dangerous assignment. But he eventually went, proclaiming to them a warning of coming destruction on account of their evil ways. But as the story goes, led by its king, the entire city
Tiglath-pileser also took the practice of deportation to a whole new level of wholesale transplantations of subjugated nations to other countries. On reception of the tribute from Judah, Tiglath-pileser captured and destroyed Damascus, killed Rezin its king, invaded Israel, and deported many of the Israelite captives. This deportation is mentioned in the Bible:
In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria. (2 Kings 15:29)
And the following record left by Tiglath-pileser is a direct confirmation of the above account of this deportation:
The land Bit-Humri [House of Omri, which is Israel], all of whose cities I had utterly devastated in my former campaigns, whose [people] and livestock I had carried off and whose [capital] city Samaria alone had been spared: [now] they overthrew Peqah, their king. (Tiglath-pileser III, pp 44, 17, 18)
The land Bit-Humri [Israel]: I brought to Assyria . . ., its auxiliary army, . . . and an assembly of its people. [They (or: I) killed] their king Peqah and I placed Hoshea [as king] over them. (ibid, pp 42, 15b–17a)
Tiglath-pileser allowed a small group to remain as a small vassal state with Samaria as capital. Ahaz king of Judah voluntarily submitted to the Assyrians and Judah became an Assyrian vassal state.
Tiglath-pileser’s successor, Shalmaneser V (727–722 BC) ruled only briefly. During his reign, he fought a coalition of western kings, including Israel, who had ceased to pay tribute. He besieged the Israelite city of Samaria for three years and captured it, probably before his death, leaving the task of deporting the Israelites and resettling their territory with other people groups to his successor, Sargon II, who himself claimed to have conquered Samaria.
Sargon II (722–705 BC) was a strong king who spent much of his reign on military campaigns. He built a new capital at Dur-Sharrukin, today known as Khorsabad, a few kilometres north of Nineveh.
Sargon II’s successor, his son Sennacherib (705–681 BC), made technical improvements to his war machinery and rebuilt Nineveh, making it the most glorious city of its time. During his reign, he campaigned in Palestine to put down a rebellion by Hezekiah, King of Judah. This campaign is described in great detail in the Bible, which specifically mentions his capture of the fortified cities of Judah, including his attack of Lachish; the payment of tribute by Hezekiah to Sennacherib; the construction of a water tunnel by Hezekiah; his inability to take the city of Jerusalem; his assassination by two of his sons upon his return to Nineveh; and his replacement by Esarhaddon on the Assyrian throne (2 Kings 18:13, 14, 17; 19:32, 35–37; 20:20).
The biblical account has now been confirmed by archaeology in great detail: the Lachish wall reliefs from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh portray the battle of Lachish, as do the excavations of the city of Lachish; Hezekiah’s water tunnel in Jerusalem, which begins at the Gihon Spring and ends at the Pool of Siloam, has been discovered; an inscription on the flank of an Assyrian human-headed winged bull informs us that Hezekiah paid taxes to Sennacherib; the Taylor Prism of Sennacherib informs us of the 46 cities of Judah that he captured—but interestingly when it comes to the city of Jerusalem, Hezekiah simply says that he “shut up Hezekiah like a bird in a cage.” We also know that on his return to Nineveh, Sennacherib was assassinated and that Esarhaddon did take his place on the throne. Such discoveries confirm the Bible a legitimate and accurate historical source and one not be dismissed.
According to Austen Henry Layard, the excavator of Nineveh, the wall reliefs in Sennacherib’s pa